Balochistan Has Stories

Kaleer Baloch

I was ambitious to become a writer. I still can see that iit will take long time. I was in thirteen when I wrote my first piece of writing for one of the Balochi magazines, which could not be published. That article is still in the box, the box which I call it “the box of treasure”.  Further, for becoming a good writer I was advised to be a good reader. It was difficult for me to have good books for my reading, especially in Baluchistan and in a remote area. I noticed, some books were available in my father’s cupboard. I started my journey by reading those books.

I did not like reading under crowd and noise. It was complex to focus on reading in a small room where seven family members live together, eat and sleep in the same room. Night was one of the options to focus on reading while everyone is asleep. However, again no lighting and electricity was the obstacle. The poor village was without basic facilities. The situation is now even worse.

I was eager to be an amateur writer. I would have become cheap if I had written for money. So, I sat idle, imagined, counted stars at night, and painted the wall of the house with daydreams colors’. I usually found myself between pros and cons and struggled to catch novel words.

I thought, the jungle of words might guide me for better writing but none of those books ever guided me. However, I assembled thousands of words and vocabularies from those read books but failed to market them in the world of humanity.

I wanted to have my own room for my writing, I never had it. It is the age of computers, which makes the writers’ life easy for writing, I never had a computer. I always wrote with pens and note books. I had bought two pens “Eagle” and “Dollar”, made in Pakistan. My favorite ink was “Black Dollar” a symbol of black sky to me. I still have all my vague imaginations written on note books and kept in the “box of treasure”.

 It was 2002, when I persuaded my father to buy me a desktop/ personal computer. I did not know how he managed. Finally, I came to know that he mortgaged his farm for 85,000 Pakistani Rupees. The first article I typed was about “Stealing Nation” and I sent it via email to Gulf News   and as usual, it had never been published.

It is 2016 and I am using my friend’s laptop and writing this article as my own personal computer was of no use after being   burned. My house was burned along with my “box of treasure”. I might be the next target by unknown and I have no roots to escape. Now I am just digging my story within my own stories. There is no internet and WIFI in my area, I had to travel 20 to 30 km just to post this article.

Published in The Balochistan Point on March 7, 2016